The present invention generally relates to storage containers and, more particularly, is concerned with material holding containers for use in floor areas of normal storage compartments of motor vehicles to add weight for improved traction and handling and provide a contained storage space.
Vehicles designed for carrying cargo are engineered for optimum handling when loaded to capacity. Unfortunately, however, traction and handling problems can occur as the result of insufficient weight over the vehicle's power driven wheels. In response to this problem, weight bearing substitutes for carrying cargo have been used to improve vehicle performance when not loaded.
Many owners of these vehicles have responded to these problems by using sandbags, bricks or other bulky materials to weigh down cargo areas. These methods, however, while providing the weight needed for these vehicles, take up much needed space in the cargo areas and tend to shift weight when they move around the area. Moreover, the loose material can fall out or even become dangerous projectiles in the event of a sudden stop or accident. These methods are clearly poor alternatives. Other devices similar to the present invention have been introduced to the public, but none fully address the vehicle owners' needs.
One type of device has been introduced which uses a ballast chamber similar to the present invention. The device uses ballasts for liquid containment only, which run the length of the pick-up truck bed and are incorporated with a truck bed liner as a single unit. The device also provides for filling and draining of the lining device. Generally, the device is intended as a permanent year-round accessory for the truck bed. Although the device provides a product for vehicle bed protection and added weight, it has serious drawbacks.
One major drawback of the device and other variations of it is that it is limited to containing liquid. Using liquid in the device can lead to a hydraulic thrust caused by abrupt movement of the water within the chamber during sudden acceleration or deceleration or sharp turning of the vehicle resulting in unpredictable movement of the vehicle while being driven. This effect could be lessened by completely filling the ballast chambers, however, doing so renders the product's weight unadjustable. Furthermore, using liquid in a ballast in cold weather requires agents to lower the fluid's freezing point. These agents being typically expensive and toxic, the truck owner would be required to store or properly dispose of the agent when emptying the ballast to adjust the ballast weight and buy more agent when refilling.
Another drawback is that the device cannot be easily removed and stored. It is intended as a permanent accessory and is too bulky and heavy to remove and store whether full of fluid or empty. This problem has been addressed in other devices by designing the device in sections, but the single filling and single draining valves of this unified ballast system requires a unified and water-tight ballast. Finally, the device is not versatile. It must be redesigned for different cargo areas different vehicles and is thus more expensive to produce than would a device that is adjustable to different cargo areas.
Other devices have been introduced disclosing removable weights that connect on the floor of a pick-up truck bed like a puzzle. These are removable because they are small, and can be adjusted simply by omitting some of the weights. These designs appear to have solved the aforementioned ballast devices' shortcomings, but they have their own defects.
First of all, the puzzle devices have too many individual pieces to handle when removing the individual pieces in order to haul a payload. Removal and storage of a weight system should be convenient for the vehicle owner. A smaller number of pieces at a manageable weight would make the puzzle pieces more convenient to remove and store. Second, there appears no clear method for holding the pieces in place in the truck bed. In the puzzle devices, although in each the several pieces are locked together to prevent them from sliding laterally in the cargo bed, the danger still exists of vertical movement of the pieces, thus, lifting them from their interlocked positions to freely slide across the truck bed and possibly projecting them out of the bed in the case of an accident or sudden stop. Third, adjusting the weight is difficult since the distribution of the weight with respect to the wheels changes when the puzzle pieces are removed. Finally, similar to the ballast devices and other variations of them, the puzzle devices are too expensive to produce. The market for this type of product is primarily aimed at the private truck owner and middle to low income consumer and, as a result, demands a low cost for its success.
Consequently, a need exists for a versatile and convenient device that provides extra weight in cargo areas in motor vehicles at a low cost.